You can remove the Emergency Manager, but you can’t remove the emergency,” - Sen. Randy Richardville.

State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville: âÂÂÂÂYou can remove the Emergency Manager, but you canâÂÂÂÂt remove the emergency."AP photo

Imagine the shock in the statewide labor movement when it wakes up the day after the election and discovers that even though the voters repealed the Emergency Manager Law, legislative Republicans will not take “no” for an answer.

Question posed: “If the people reject this plan to kill the Emergency Manager law, will you be back to reinvent it in another form?"

“Yeah,” says the senate GOP leader Randy Richardville. “We would do something.”
And just to drive home the point he contends to do nothing would be “irresponsible.”

Well his critics, and their will be legions of them, will argue it is equally as irresponsible for Republicans to ignore the will of the voters if indeed they do repeal the EM law.

However Mr. Richardville (R-Monroe) says, “We listened to some of the criticism of the original bill and we do have a second bill that would take into consideration some of the things the people didn’t like and maybe we’ll soften it a bit.”

That suggests that some of the gripes about the state sending in a czar to run cities have been heard, but the central beef of labor and others was that duly elected officials were sent out to pasture allowing this czar to run everything.

Sen. Richardville advises that “criticism” will not be addressed because it goes to the very heart of what the governor and his GOP minions want to do. They conclude some local elected officials don’t have the nerve to make the cuts to balance the books. Sending in one person, who is not elected by the citizens, is the only way to avoid bankruptcy. Never mind that it sounds rather un-American to the boo-birds who don’t like it.

“You can remove the Emergency Manager, but you can’t remove the emergency,” the Senate leader asserts, adding the goal is to prevent cities from being run by “judges from out of state” in some far away bankruptcy court.

But if the voters say get rid of the law, they may be a tad upset if Republicans proceed to re-do it.